The prior art is the examination of corresponding parameters of a mobile radio network by dedicated test runs that require a cost-intensive use of personnel and material. In addition, these processes have the drawback that only discrete partial areas of a mobile radio system can be acquired with such methods, e.g. measurements of the supply quality of a mobile radio system along streets and highways. Another drawback consists in that these test runs cannot be performed continuously and over large areas, and therefore measurement results cannot always be available for the current status or for large areas.
An optimized variant of the process of the dedicated test runs for acquiring network parameters is described in DE 199 00 543: in the process described therein, special users of a mobile radio system are recruited to acquire relevant parameters of a mobile radio network, and these acquired measured values are transmitted upon the occurrence of a previously determined event to an analysis device of the mobile radio network by means of signaling channels (SMS). To acquire the position, an external device (“storage and processing module”) is required to determine the current position of the mobile radio device within the network topology (in addition, optional external GPS receiver and optional personal computer). The use of one or more external accessory devices (“storage and processing module” & GPS receivers) represents an unreasonable expense for a normal mobile radio user, whereby the applicability of this process remains limited to specifically equipped operators (for example, buses, taxis, trucks, etc., but not “normal” mobile phone users).
The prior art is thus systems for the acquisition of the characteristic data of a mobile radio system that acquire the data to be determined on the user side by a subscriber terminal (MS: mobile station, UE: user equipment), forward said data to an external storage and processing unit and provide them with location information (position) by means of accessory hardware (e.g. external GPS receiver), and forward them via user data channels (GPRS) or signaling channels by means of SMS (e.g. via the SDCCH channel with GSM) to the mobile radio network for further processing/analysis, cf. DE 199 00 543.
As an alternative, processes are also known that buffer the recorded data in a data storage unit that has to be specially read out for the purpose of processing these data; this approach is common in dedicated test runs in mobile radio networks.